George D. Barclay

JUDGE BARCLAY, PIONEER AND FRONTIERSMAN, DEAD

Death Came to the Old Soldier at the Leavenworth Home

Judge George D. Barclay, for years a police judge and justice of the peace in Hutchinson, old soldier, Indian fighter, newspaper editor and frontiersman, is dead. Death occurred yesterday afternoon at the National Soldiers’ home at Leavenworth, where the old veteran had been spending his declining years in comfort among his comrades. The funeral will occur there tomorrow. He is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Stella Allison of St. Louis, Mrs. Austin of Garden City, and Mrs. Carl Mayer of Odessa, Russia, and a son, Will Barclay of Colorado. Judge Barclay was 67 years of age, and a native of Allegheny City, Pa.  

He had a long and proud record as a soldier, serving four years in the Civil War and two years in the Indian service, six years in all. He enlisted on the opening of the war in May 1861, in Ewing’s battery of the First West Virginia light artillery and re-enlisted in 1864 in the Tenth Pennsylvania infantry, being finally mustered out on July 22, 1865. In 1867 he came west as a frontiersman, locating in Nebraska, and enlisted as first lieutenant of the Pawnee, Indian scouts, with whom he served for two years in hard Indian fighting on the plains. He fought in the bloody Indian battle at Lilian Springs, Colorado. 

Judge Barclay came to Kansas forty years ago, locating on a claim in Reno County November 13, 1871 and remained here until 1878 when he went to Trinidad, Colo., and ran a frontier hotel there. In 1880 he started the Las Vegas Optic at Las Vegas, N.M. and was one of the pioneers in the newspaper business in that territory. He returned to Hutchinson in 1880 and was elected justice of the peace of Reno township in that year, serving for four years. He was elected police judge in 1888 and was re-elected three terms in succession. Later he again served several years as justice of the peace and police judge. He was active in the Odd Fellows, a past commander of Joe Hooker post, G.A.R. and prominent in Masonic circles.

The Hutchinson News     

June 1 1911, pg 11

Submitted by Kathleen Dankanyin

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Lot 381